Music fills the back porch in summertime from the humming tubes attached to the walls. These long tubes are built by Mud Dauber Wasps that hum during the building process. The tubes are nests built by females with mud formed into cells, then filled with spiders to provide food for her off-spring. Next she lays her egg and begins on a new cell.

This female Mud Dauber Wasp has spent the last few weeks combing over the plants in a nearby bed. The aphids hide as she comes by, but they are not the prey she is looking for.

The backyard is full of nature’s music from birds, wasps, bees, cicadas and all the nighttime peepers. The music is one of the joys of summer.